At this point in December, holiday concerts and Handel's Messiah have completely hijacked the classical music schedule. Here are a few other events, not all of which avoid the spirit of the season. After this post, the Classical Music Agenda will take its end-of-the-year hiatus, to return in the New Year. >> On Tuesday, the final concert sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society this calendar year features young violist Jennifer Stumm and Finghin Collins at......

I know, I know, it's just about time to stop leaning on the Christmas photo crutch. But I couldn't ignore this typically stunning photo from andertho. The somber view of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception through rainy haze perfectly sums up this year's drizzly Christmas Day atmosphere.......

FRIDAY: >> The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception offers its annual Christmas Concert for Charity tonight. The Basilica's professional choir (featuring our very own DCist Charles!) will perform, followed by the choirs and orchestra of Catholic University. Admission is free, with a free-will donation to benefit the Spanish Catholic Center, a haven for immigrants to the Washington, D.C., area since 1967. The center provides services at locations in Mount Pleasant and......

Flickr user Grundlepuck used an abandoned building on 9th Street to get this though-a-window view of the Immaculate Conception church. The EXIF data is here.......

Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI was elected by the College of Cardinals, the Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, sent his letter of retirement to the Vatican. This is something that bishops are required to do when they turn 75, and the Pope accepted the resignation and soon nominated a successor. The Bishop of Pittsburgh, Donald W. Wuerl, was appointed to be the new leader of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Washington last month. Yesterday,......

This DCist has managed to satisfy those persistent classical music cravings from time to time lately, but August is a slow month for concerts. In fact, we took our passport to make the trip all the way out to Wolf Trap last night, on a dangerous quest to see Rossini's La Cenerentola in a semistaged version by the Wolf Trap Opera Company (reviewed at Ionarts). The big party resumes in Washington next month, of course,......

We considered not even posting the Classical Music Agenda this week, given how few concerts there are to hear. (Our concert schedule for the month of August at Ionarts is the shortest it's ever been.) Still, it would be pathetic for this DCist to shirk work this easy, so we promise to keep it short. Basically, it comes down to one of two instruments, cello or organ, and both are free. So, choose your poison.......

Moving into the weekend -- which is set to be beautiful, according to Capital Weather -- today's news is particularly heavy on the transportation front. (This photo is from Melissa, who posted this photo on DCist's Flickr page of a sunrise over the campus of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast.) First, DCist anxiously awaits the results of a meeting held late last night concerning whether Georgetown's Whitehurst Freeway will be torn down......